Category: #BCM332

There is another side to gamer girls seen through a documentary made in 2013 by the name of ‘State of Play’ that focuses on the view of three boys that are wanting to become pro gamers. As the pro gaming industry within Korea can show honour and leadership through the gaming industry however taking various sacrifices within their ordinary lives as young boys such as missing school and social activities. How this relates to women in the gaming industry is by the women that are presented within the documentary as the cheer on crowd.

Within the documentary no women are seen throughout it besides the ones in the crowds. Upon further research it was targeted more on the view of women not playing a ‘man’s sport’ and that it would lead to shame if a women was to beat a man.

An example of a 17 year old Korean woman by the name of Zarya became a very good player at the game Overwatch but was accused of cheating. She expanded her career into the professional side of gaming that two professional gamer men quit due to the embarrassment and shame placed upon them. She had to even go more as to hide her face and receive a number of threats from Korean boys.

The value of a ‘Man’s sport’ is always brought up when an activity or event is wanting to separate the sexes into specific areas. On a book known as ‘Sociology of sport and social theory’ by Earl Smith it evaluates the speculation of how an athlete feels within their sport and goes into further depth of how the individuals respects are looked upon.

‘In competitive sport, male athletes who appear to lack aggressiveness and “intestinal fortitude” may find themselves labelled a “pansy” or a “queer” by their coaches and teammates.’ Earl Smith. In the reverse cycle of this it can show that of a women’s perspective of her structure being classed as weak and feeble to always have a man to do the job for her.

The foundation of LA84 talks about the Gender stereotyping in televised sports and conducted research to be made. Their findings found that women were classed as ‘humorous sex objects in the stands, but missing as athletes.’ Upon further results women’s sports shown on television showed only 5% of interest while a major minority went to men at 92%. Another view was that when women were to be shown on television focused on the aspect of gossip and things that weren’t taken seriously.

Women are strongly demeanour and put down within the gaming industry depending on whether they are the gamer, the worker or even in the audience. They are often seen as that from gossip magazines and not really placed in the spot light in front of men. This is due to men’s behaviour and their actions towards women even if that means their value of religion or history. Women within the gaming industry need to flourish now that the numbers are growing and will continue to empower more women into the industry.

Over the years of being a Girl Gamer I have realised a number of things within my travels when it comes to Gender within the Gaming Industry. The reasons behind inequality in the gaming area towards women is focused on disinterest of playing games by girls, the depiction of women in games, educational and cooperation factors, and a lack of higher roles to mentor women to go further. (pg.148)

Many adults between the ages of 18 – 30 make up the demographic of gamers. A majority of it being females at %52. This number has slowly been increasing but many games are creating big controversy. The commotion stems from the idea of how women should be shown within games and if women are at featured as the main protagonist at times. Such examples being Fallout that gives you only one option of being a man and given the view of women being in the kitchen and cliche jokes. The Feminist Frequency (Twitter account of Feminists) attacked the new app that had been released mid last year called Fallout Shelter that shows women becoming pregnant and seen as weak and feeble even at times hysterical. So it went from the players to industries fault.

Michael Gallagher, the head of the entertainment software association took it upon himself to work out a better way to bump up the numbers. He released a variety of female gamer programs that involve both social and workforce related programs at local colleges of up to 180 institutions with a %31 enrolment progress.

“On this subject, I’m so encouraged about the growth trajectory and the positive trajectory of this industry when it comes to diversity,” Gallagher said.

Though the industry falls in some areas of its field it does flourish online through social media and individual production online. An example of this being a famous YouTuber by the name of ‘ihasCupquakes.’ She has had various progress online through her YouTube channels promoting games, figures and other geeky desires but her fan base ranges over four million subscribers with over 1.8 billion views. When playing games she does Let’s plays, walkthroughs and commentaries however her main focus is to show fun and love towards all games.